Friday, October 28, 2005

My BLOG as a Legacy

I recently read about the case of a young soldier who died in Iraq (among the now 2,000 who have died) and whose family tried to gain rights to his e-mail account to find out what had been happening in his life prior to his death. YAHOO! refused to provide them access to his account. I suppose YAHOO! did what was legally correct. But how many times have you asked yourself just what your parent, grandparent, or friend was really like – what made that person happy, sad, angry?

What better legacy than your BLOG to someone who wants to know what you were really like? So if my children are reading this, I can assure you that most of what you will ever want to know about me is in this BLOG. It has become my medium for recording myself, just as I am.

I have come to realize that every person who writes a BLOG starts with the same blank canvas and chooses to fill it in different ways. There are people like www.washingtoncube.blogspot.com who are obviously very clever at combining photographs and text into incredible masterpieces. Obviously a lot of other people think so too because people like this woman have a huge following – note the number of comments. Then there is www.goldpoppy.blogspot.com, who introduced me to BLOGging. Hers is a magical blend of Washington, DC, her unique approach to shamanism, a chronicling of her energy level (which bounces around a lot), interspersed with romantic interludes (like how you physically remember a kiss). In comparison to these two BLOGgers extraordinaire, my diary-style recounting of my life seems pretty lame.

As I was working out this morning, I was thinking about what cool pictures I could include in today’s post just to spice it up a little. What did I do today? I cooked homemade pea soup and apple-pear crisp for my 75-year-old ex-secretary, who is still my wonderful friend and confidant. So I could include photos of all the colorful chopped up ingredients, the simmering soup in the brown enamel pot that I always use for soup, and the nicely browned crisp as it came out of the oven. In terms of art appeal, that would hardly match up to a barfing pumpkin or any of Washingtoncube’s other photos. But then, photographing an obviously staged barfing pumpkin would probably never occur to me. I am starting to like the idea of including photos, even if they are as mundane as cooking shots!

The biggest surprise was news that my daughter called late last night to say that one of her friends had found my BLOG. Of course, my first reaction was “How could that be possible?” Then I realized that my full name is at the top of this BLOG. There must be a BLOG-search engine of some sort. My second reaction was “Is this person going to think I am totally crazy?” But then that’s the chance you take by putting yourself online. Interestingly enough, I have never been able to interest Rachel in reading my BLOG. Perhaps if her friend recommends it, I will have a new reader. (The number of my serious readers is still easily counted on one hand.)

I have accepted the fact that I will never have a following like Washintoncube’s or be able to offer the entertainment of Goldpoppy’s dreams or magic. But I will leave behind a record of who I really was to anyone who dares to read it.